People in the News (6/10/18): Appointments, Promotions, Obituaries

June 10, 2018

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation in Lansdowne, Virginia, has announced the appointment of GIUSEPPE "SEPPY" BASILI as executive director. A leading K-12, college readiness, and higher education expert, Basili brings thirty years of education industry experience to the role, including stints as director of strategic initiatives and chief operating officer at the foundation and early work in the development of curricula designed to cultivate college going aspiration in collaboration with major urban school districts as general manager of Kaplan’s K-12 Learning Services. While at Kaplan, he also served as executive director of the company's pre-college programs, which include their test-preparation programs, college admissions services, and publications for the SAT, ACT, and PSAT tests.

The Barr Foundation in Boston has announced the appointment of KALILIA BARNETT as program officer, climate resilience, which the foundation added as a third priority of its climate program in 2017. Currently interim executive director at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Barnett served for eight years as executive director of Alternatives for Community & Environment, a Boston-based nonprofit working to build the power of low-income communities and communities of color in Massachusetts. Prior to that, she was a senior organizer with Community Labor United and worked at Jamaica Plain and Madison Park development corporations. Barnett also serves on the boards of the Mass Budget and Policy Center, the Center for Environmental Health, and the Center for Economic Democracy.

The board of directors of the Taproot Foundation, a national nonprofit that works to connect nonprofits and social change organizations with skilled volunteers who share their expertise pro bono, has announced the appointment of LINDSAY FIRESTONE GRUBER as the organization’s new president and CEO. Gruber, a fourteen-year veteran of the organization, joined Taproot in 2004 and in 2008 founded its Advisory Services department, quickly growing the practice to become the global leader in corporate pro bono program design. She has served as the organization’s chief program officer since 2016 and in that role has shepherded the development of new team projects and supported the expansion of the organization’s online platform Taproot+ worldwide.

The Kresge Foundation in Troy, Michigan, has announced the addition of JOHN FRY to its board of trustees. Fry has served since 2010 as the president of Drexel University, in Philadelphia, and prior to that he served as president of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Fry also spent the years 1995-2002 as executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania, where he helped secure the support of a coalition of nonprofit, business, neighborhood, and governmental organizations for a multi-pronged strategy designed to address the key challenges facing the University City neighborhood in West Philadelphia.

The board of trustees of Commonfund, a Connecticut-based asset manager for endowments, foundations and public pension investors, has announced the appointment of MARK ANSON as president and chief executive officer, succeeding CATHERINE KEATING, who will be leaving the organization at the end of the month and has accepted a senior position at BNY Mellon. Anson, who has appointed DEBORAH SPALDING and KRISTOFER KWAIT as deputy chief investment officers, will continue to serve as chief investment officer and as chairman of Commonfund Capital, Inc. and Commonfund Asset Management Company, Inc.

Community Action Marin, the largest human services provider in Marin County, has announced CHANDRA ALEXANDRE as its new chief executive officer. A seasoned nonprofit executive and fund development professional, Alexandre has helped strengthen regional affordable housing and early childhood education initiatives, expand education reform strategies nationally, and guide resource movement building in support global women’s rights. Before her transition to the nonprofit sector, Chandra was in private banking and served in the U.S. diplomatic service.

DAVID H. BROWDY, the senior financial executive at University of Utah Health, has been named vice president and chief financial officer at the Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, effective August 1. A C-suite executive with a background that includes health system finance, institutional support for research, academic health care, information technology management, and facilities planning and development, Browdy will replace VP and CFO RANDY MAIN, who will retire June 30 after more than three decades of service.

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in Morristown, New Jersey, has announced that CHRIS DAGGETT, its president and CEO for the last eight years, will retire on September 1. Under Daggett’s leadership, the foundation recently completed a strategic plan that envisions a more equitable New Jersey and moves the foundation in a direction more reflective of the current and rapidly changing demographics and needs of the state. “The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and, more importantly, the people of New Jersey have benefited from Chris’ dedication to the state, its arts, environment and education," said Dodge board chair Christopher "Kim" Elliman. "Chris' signature achievements were in orchestrating the philanthropic commitment to fostering an ecosystem for local news, for the response and rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy, and for the increased focus on training STEM teachers for New Jersey’s schools. Chris worked tirelessly to make New Jersey a better place to live and work, from the urban north to the rural south of the state, recognizing the broad diversity of New Jersey and crafting a more equitable society. We are grateful for his eight-plus years and for all that he has and will continue to do for this state."

In other news, PND notes the passing of JILL KER CONWAY, a former president of Smith College and a trustee of the Kresge Foundation from September 1988 to June 2001, at the age of 83. "As president of Smith College in the 1970s and ‘80s," said Kresge Foundation president Rip Rapson in a statement on the Kresge website, "[Jill] often interacted with the foundation. Her extensive financial and administrative experience combined with an inquisitive nature caught the attention of Kresge trustees, who invited her to join the board in 1988. Until her retirement in 2001, she served both as a trustee and as board chair, the second woman to do so in Kresge’s history. [And though] she had left the board by the time Kresge began its transformation to a strategic philanthropy, she fully supported the idea of transitioning from supporting bricks-and-mortar projects to focusing on cities and people….On behalf of the foundation, our hearts go out to her family."